Kansas: Brownback Puts Pro-Life Attorney on State Health Board

Governor Sam Brownback, who is pro-life, is coming under fire from abortion advocates for an appointment to a state health board that oversees abortion facilities and whether they follow health and safety laws.

The Kansas state Board of Healing Arts has been controversial in recent years because it has not sufficiently held abortion businesses accountable. Now, Brownback has made his first appointment to the agency naming adoption attorney and Sedgwick county judge Richard Macias to the panel.

The pro-abortion Trust Women PAC ripped Brownback over the decision, saying Macias, who has done legal work for the pro-life group Operation Rescue, should not have been appointed.

“We are disappointed, but not surprised,” said Julie Burkhart, executive director of the abortion advocacy group said, according to the Kansas City Star. “This is just another example of Brownback’s obsession with restricting access to women’s reproductive health in Kansas.”

Brownback’s spokeswoman, Sherriene Jones-Sontag said the Wichita attorney, who will be on the board through June 2014, “is a well-qualified and a very respected attorney who will continue the reforms needed at the Board of Healing Arts.”

“Pro-abortion groups are having a fit over the appointment of this attorney because he is openly pro-life, but they are making a mountain out of a mole hill. Operation Rescue has had minimal professional contact with Mr. Macias,” Troy Newman of Operation Rescue told LifeNews in response. “He is an excellent attorney with a high reputation for integrity and honesty. He will be a great addition to the Board of Healing Arts, which is undergoing reform after being wracked with scandal and corruption under the pro-abortion Sebelius Administration.”

“The old Board was filled with pro-abortion cronies who worked to protect abortionists from accountability under the law. The new Board has undergone a major house cleaning and is beginning to be a functional agency again,” Newman said.

Operation Rescue contends that the appointment of Macias is a huge improvement over Sebelius appointees. She once appointed disgraced abortionist Howard Ellis to serve on the Board of Healing Arts even though he had recently surrendered his Missouri medical license in order to avoid discipline. It was not long before Ellis resigned under pressure, and two months later was charged by the Board with attempting to persuade a physician to falsify records.

“Brownback’s appointments have shown infinitely better judgment than his predecessors. Elections have consequences. The abortion fanatics who want to protect child-killing at any cost just need to deal with it,” said Newman.

Kathy Ostrowski, the legislative director for Kansans for Life, also responded and priased the appointment of Macias, who is sitting as one of three “public” members who are not medically-credentialed.

“Abortion lobbyists are complaining that the well-respected Macias has taken on pro-life clients, yet Governor Sebelius appointed to the Board known pro-abortion individuals, including pro-abortion leader /state representative, Carol Sader, Dr. “Boo” Hodges, and pro-abortion and pro-euthanasia Center for Practical Bioethics head, Myra Christopher,”she said.

“This state medical board has protected abortionists and shown an inability to kick out lousy doctors for over two decades up through 2008, under Larry Buening as general counsel and executive director,” she added.